1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to plant fertilizers and plant growth stimulants, and in particular pertains to a plant stimulant made from seaweed which contains oxygen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Seaweed has long served as a fertilizer for plants. When chemical fertilizers were developed, however, seaweed no longer was used in great amounts. As natural "organic" fertilizers have become increasingly popular, seaweed in the form of powder sprays and liquid applications has again become a commercially feasible fertilizer.
For example, solutions or meal made from the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum have been found to cause plants such as flowers, grapes, tomatoes and soybeans to have improved quality, protein quantity and yield. Other seaweeds which are reported to improve plant growth include species Ascophyllum, Sargassum, Macrocystis, and Laminaria.
Seaweed in the order Fucales (brown algae) such as the genus Sargassum have not been used as fertilizer sources as much as the northern genera of the order Laminariales discussed above. Sargassum is found primarily in tropical or subtropical ocean regions and extends northward in the Atlantic Ocean into temperate regions.
The value of seaweed is generally attributed to the fact that various species are relatively low in carbohydrate and protein, and rich in numbers of amino acids, trace elements, B, D, E and other vitamins, fucoxanthin, and beta-carotene and various plant growth hormones.
The means of treatment with seaweed to improve plant growth include application to soil and seeds and foliar sprays to plants at varying times including as soon after leaf emergence as possible and at blossom. The seaweed may be blended with fungicides or other plant treatments.
Previous seaweed products have not always been uniformly effective in their content of the trace elements, and vitamins and other compounds and therefore, seaweed products do not always provide significant benefit to the plants exposed to the product.
Many soils in which plants are grown are lacking in oxygen which is essential for plant growth. In some soils such as heavy clay soils, the lack of oxygen completely or partially inhibits plant growth. This problem is addressed by the invention of Boghosian (U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,490), which provides a method for oxygenating roots by the addition of urea peroxide or hydrogen peroxide. The peroxides are added directly to the plants in solution. Boghosian also states, without example, that the peroxides may be encapsulated using polymeric materials such as ethylcellulose as a coating.
It is an object of this invention to provide an oxygen source as part of a seaweed fertilizer for plants.
Although seaweed can serve as a very complete plant nutrient, it does not generally have an optimum amount of organic carbon. It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide a seaweed fertilizer product that contains added humic acid as a carbon source.
Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.